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Gary
Rank 1
Gary
Rank 1
March 9, 2017
Solved

Can we get access to the OVO energy online account API to download our smart meter usage data?

  • March 9, 2017
  • 227 replies
  • 36559 views

Hi Ovo,

I wondered whether the API that powers your live and historical usage page in the account menu is something you could look into opening up a bit so we can freely access our raw data and also perhaps it may stimulate some interesting community projects?

For instance (more sport related), Strava and Fitbit.

    Best answer by g-de

    Updated on 14/08/25 by Abby_OVO

     

    Tim_OVO: “We love seeing the innovative ways our customers are using tech to help monitor and manage their energy usage. It’s inspiring us to think about ways to do energy differently. We know some customers have been using some of the application programming interface (APIs) behind our public facing services. While we’re OK with that, we do need to make you aware of a couple of things.

     

    These APIs are designed to be used by OVO teams only, and aren't public facing. There are some downsides to using APIs that aren't for the public, and we wanted to let you know what these are. Behind the scenes, OVO uses APIs to share and update information between systems that power your bills and your online account. This is done in partnership with Kaluza, the tech company that’s part of the OVO family. They’ve built the billing platform designed to put our customers in the driving seat of their energy usage. 

     

    These internal APIs are intended for use by Kaluza and its clients, who are energy retailers like OVO, rather than customers. Because of this, there’s no support for them being used anywhere else, which means they may be discontinued with no notice when we update our products and services. 

     

    OVO Energy and Kaluza need to be able to monitor these APIs, and may block access if there's any problems in the future.

     

    We know some customers may have put time and effort into developing solutions that use these API. So, now that you know the risks, we want to hear from you on how you’re using the APIs and the problems you’re solving with your DIY approach. 

     

    Is there anything you’d like to see from OVO to help you monitor and manage your energy better? Leave a comment below to tell us.”

     

    can you help me understand if the links above allow users to access raw data as if from an API?

    I can certainly give it a go.

     

    Firstly, big thanks to Timmo and other contributors for developing the library. All thanks go to them and links to buy them a coffee for their effort can be found on PyPi or GitHub:

    https://pypi.org/project/ovoenergy/
    https://github.com/timmo001/ovoenergy

     

    I assume the way the library was developed this was to reverse engineer the My OVO website. That is, browse the website as normal and and monitor the traffic to see what OVO URLs and APIs it uses. Assuming this is the case, one of these URLs (get account IDs) already seems to be different but the library is still working for the moment. The APIs being used are not officially supported outside of the website, so first, a warning that any changes to the My OVO website may break the library.

     

    For anyone using Python, you should be able to include the ovoenergy library and look at https://github.com/timmo001/ovoenergy/blob/master/ovoenergy/cli.py for how to use it.

     

    For replicating this in other languages, the process seems to be as follows:

    1. Login by sending a POST request to https://my.ovoenergy.com/api/v2/auth/login with the following JSON in the body: 
      {
          "username": "...",
          "password": "...",
          "rememberMe": true
      }

      From the response, save the cookies to use in all future requests.

    2. Next, send a GET request to https://smartpaym.ovoenergy.com/api/customer-and-account-ids . Be sure to save the items in the “accountIds” property (usually only one item).
    3. Finally, make a GET request to https://smartpaym.ovoenergy.com/api/energy-usage/daily/{accountId}?date={yyyy-MM} where {accountId} is the value from the previous request and {yyyy-MM} is the month in the format 2020-08.

    You can also get monthly or half-hourly usage using the following URLs similar to step 3:

    As mentioned above, if this is wanted for Home Assistant, the integration was added in version 0.114 (https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/ovo_energy/).


    Unfortunately the data only goes up to the end of the previous day as OVO no longer provide real-time data:

     

    227 replies

    Show previous replies
    MikeWilliams
    Newcomer
    MikeWilliams
    Newcomer
    October 15, 2020

    Btw, I can confirm there is no risk of insecure as you will see from the command line the details are on your machine and provided to directly access ovo, the exe has been made by best practice .net core code and is a standalone on pc only exe.


    Is the program open or closed source?

    At the moment I am discussing if I should open source it or if OVO themselves may be interested to make it or a basis of it integrated as a supported offering.


    Would be good if it were made open source, then the community could help to fix any issues.

    Transparent
    Rank 20
    Transparent
    Rank 20
    October 15, 2020

    There’s another issue to consider if OVO were to take this on. I believe that their new Billing System is being developed such that it can be licensed to 3rd parties. Such an arrangement means that they would need to secure some rights over any externally-sourced code within the suite and be able to provide rapid support if an element of that code were to fail or require upgrading.

    That’s a legal minefield.

    And let’s remember that it was the failure of a 3rd party software provider to resolve issues with parts of their billing system which caused OVO to embark on creating their own in the first place. It didn’t help that Ofgem clobbered them with a hefty fine for the failed usage-estimation provisions in that software.

    You will understand that there would be a significant level of reluctance for OVO to become embroiled in such a scenario again.

    Save energy... recycle electrons!
    Tim_OVO
    OVO Staff
    Tim_OVO
    OVO Forum Legend
    October 16, 2020

    Sorry for another spamming comment but I’m keen to hear if others have checked out this work done by @Jequinlan this week? 

     

    @Gary @GarethMarlow @rgphilpott @atilagiant @Deanohol @Peter_Mat @didge05 @sam_cat @jmontalvo @adec @Pramsbottom @ryck @CeeJayCee @alexbaulch @Random @maccordingley @sfgreenwood @johnk @jadam @Fordy @Steveo67 @Siggy0 @CerebralDigits @deanjames @ChrisB @jadam @DaveJenYearsley @ErTnEc @Marshcroft @jordanharper @Simonfea @obiwanzamora @AdamJ @dorinho @Ross2411 @Chrherms  @blakedrayson @TerryE @VibroAxe @jdenver @maurorappa @adec @100903609 @Riscy @r3m0dul8 @MyZoe.Uk @Ajk @AlanN51 @CloudCircus @r3m0dul8 @technogeoff @resoai @Fuzzysteve @mattc @andsee @uvarvu  @g-de 

    Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
    Jequinlan
    Rank 10
    Jequinlan
    Rank 10
    October 16, 2020

    On a side note, a v2 with fixed year field coming next week.

    John Quinlan
      ThePaulAdams
      Newcomer
      ThePaulAdams
      Newcomer
      October 16, 2020

      Sorry for another spamming comment but I’m keen to hear if others have checked out this work done by @Jequinlan this week? 

       

      In the same boat without an account now,

      So not unless it’s open-sourced, especially when they managed to make it almost 100mb in size. I’d say no to running that
       

      https://github.com/ThePaulAdams/OvOEnergy/
      uvarvu
      Newcomer
      uvarvu
      Newcomer
      October 16, 2020

      Gave up when I saw the file extension, was hoping for something written that I could run on my Pi.   I tried to decompile it using Visual Studio but didn’t get far.

        ThePaulAdams
        Newcomer
        ThePaulAdams
        Newcomer
        October 16, 2020

        Gave up when I saw the file extension, was hoping for something written that I could run on my Pi.   I tried to decompile it using Visual Studio but didn’t get far.

        Looks like C++ I’m guessing it’s using a large library for the http requests and that’s taking up the size, but haven’t had too deep a look myself

        https://github.com/ThePaulAdams/OvOEnergy/
        L
        Rank 5
        Leo Moran
        Rank 5
        December 7, 2022

        Not sure who to ask this question of. Possibly @Tim_OVO.

        I have a smart meter on the V2G trial. I have the Kaluza phone app and the OVO Computer app. If I want to see my half hourly imports, exports to The Grid and Exports to the house I simply go to the Kaluza phone app and click on the download arrow in the top right corner of the screen and I can download the complete month’s data in spreadsheet form, ready to go on my Apple computer.

        If I want to do the same with my OVO account I can get the data on a daily basis showing ½ hourly info but there is no way (that I can see) how to download the info…..other then highlight the numbers...but then it’s not compatible with Apple’s “Numbers” App and I have some copying and pasting to do...for every day of the month.

        If Kaluza have the ability to download the data easily, do OVO have a similar method that I've missed...and if not, are there any plans to do so? At present the data for Kaluza is brilliant but OVO is a struggle.

         

        Can you also tell me, The National Grid record data in GMT throughout the year, even when it’s BST but some sites record data an hour later than the clock time...explained that for Solar Data, Mid Day isn’t always 12.00 noon, sometimes before and sometimes after so it’s recorded so that 1.00pm is actually 12.00 noon. Hence to avoid the extra hour in Winter and lesser hour in Spring the time is always recorded GMT. Is the time data as recorded by OVO the same time as Kaluza and is this time GMT?

        Tim_OVO
        OVO Staff
        Tim_OVO
        OVO Forum Legend
        December 8, 2022

        Hi @Leo Moran 

         

        Great second question, add your first question is a popular one. The answer is currently that there isn’t a way to download online account usage.

         

        The second question, I know that smart meters use a time switch that DOESN’T change in BST vs GMT. Which means peak / off peak usage shifts forward an hour. However I don’t know how this impacts the online account. My assumption is that the online account uses a system to correctly shift usage blocks in terms of local time. @Blastoise186, what ae your thoughts? 

        Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
          L
          Rank 5
          Leo Moran
          Rank 5
          December 8, 2022

          Thanks for that @Tim_OVO ...and I’ll make a coffee and reread the second part to understand what you said...the grey matter isn’t as quick as it used to be.

           

           

           

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